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Cello Sonata in E minor, Op 113

Introduction

The Cello Sonata in E minor, Op 113, was completed in 1927 in Paris. Although ostensibly in three movements, it can better be considered as a four-movement work without a first movement. The sonata begins, therefore, with a slow movement, in moderate tempo, which cannot properly decide if it is in E major or E minor, for both keys tend to jostle for position, although the minor mode predominates. The second movement, unusually termed Menuetto tragico, has a violent introduction which lands on the key at the polar opposite to E minor—B flat major. Into this unusual juxtaposition comes the minuet itself, music which exhibits an underlying nervousness of character, until a brief reminiscence of the opening violence plunges us headlong into the finale. A cello cadenza lands on the dominant of E major, and at once the longest movement in the work (as if to compensate for there being no sonata first movement as such) is under way. Once more, it is E minor which tends to dominate this robust work, and we can appreciate the composer’s sleight-of-hand wherein he begins the development as if it were a false recapitulation. There is much to applaud here.

Recordings

'Such an innocent exuberance as well as an amiable lyrical impulse that it is hard not to find the music easy on the ear, especially in such infectiou ...'The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio make a convincing argument for this overlooked repertoire' (The Observer)» More